Here are the most popular entries for 2014: 17 equations that changed the World (#2) 995 Le Monde puzzle [website] 992 “simply start over and build something better” 991 accelerating MCMC via parallel predictive prefetching 990 Bayesian p-values 960 posterior predictive p-values 849 Bayesian Data Analysis [BDA3] 846 Bayesian programming [book review] 834 Feller’s shoes […]
While in Warwick last week, one evening after having exhausted my laptop battery, I tried the following Sudoku (from Libération): and could not even start. As it happened, this was a setting with no deterministic move, i.e. all free/empty entries had multiple possible values. So after trying for a while and following trees to no […]
![[not] Le Monde puzzle (solution)](http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/xianblog.wordpress.com/15648/)
Following the question on dinner table permutations on StackExchange (mathematics) and the reply that the right number was six, provided by hardmath, I was looking for a constructive solution how to build the resolvable 2-(20,5,1) covering. A few hours later. hardmath again came up with an answer, found in the paper Equitable Resolvable Coverings by van [...]
![simulated annealing for Sudokus [2]](http://xianblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/dscn2308-e1331630381779.jpg?w=450&h=252)
On Tuesday, Eric Chi and Kenneth Lange arXived a paper on a comparison of numerical techniques for solving sudokus. (The very Kenneth Lange who wrote this fantastic book on numerical analysis.) One of these techniques is the simulated annealing approach I had played with a long while ago. They seem to use the same penalisation [...]
